NATURE WATCH with Jen Carr
I received a message from Lynette, who lives on a few acres in Ocean Grove.
Lynette wanted me to help her locate a hollow where a pair of wood ducks have been nesting.
We walked around the property where there are some lovely old Bellarine yellow gums with many hollows. We saw the male wood duck fly out of the area a few times, but birds are pretty crafty and clever and never want to reveal their nesting sites to potential predators such as Lynette and myself, so it was not possible to detect exactly which tree the pair were using as a nesting hollow.
When birds are nesting it’s important not to disturb them especially when you know where the nest is, or they may abandon the nest and any hatchlings.
On Lynette’s beautiful property there were many rainbow, musk and purple-crowned lorikeets in the yellow gums. There is also a pair of eastern rosellas nesting in one of her nesting boxes.
I spent a few mornings this week at Geelong Botanic Gardens, as I saw on Facebook that Bellarine locals and bird photographers Robin Spry and Ian Smissen had photographed a male rose robin there.
This bird was so hard to photograph as when I did visit the gardens, I saw it quite regularly, but it was so quick, and loved hanging out high in the tree canopy, where the light was terrible for photography.
On the third morning I went to the GBG. It was a really dull day, but I did manage a half-decent photo. I also photographed a female rose robin at the gardens. I didn’t see the male and female together at any stage, but who knows, they might even breed in the gardens this spring.
In addition, there were several pink robins and eastern spinebills in the same vicinity as the female rose robin.
I also walked around a farm in Wallington to conduct a ‘Birds on Farms’ survey. I was thrilled to spot the small flock of weebills that hang around the yellow gums as well as striated pardalotes, a fan-tailed cuckoo, and a pair of wedge-tailed eagles.
Jillian, who owns the property, told me that she thinks that the wedgies are nesting, which is great news.
I received an email from Carole who sat at the heads near Queenscliff and watched a lot of silver gull activity. The gulls were hovering around a seal who was swimming, foraging and fishing.
Despite desperate attempts from the gulls, only the seal managed a meal. This is a frequent event as yesterday we saw a similar attempt from a Pacific gull that was interested in a fish meal but didn’t even get a bite. The seal was happy on both days, but there were many disappointed birds.
I’m off to Hawaii, Memphis and New Orleans for the next few weeks, and will report in from the USA.
I’m hoping to spot some seabirds in Hawaii, and I remember last time I went there I saw my first great frigatebird. Time will tell.
